Selfhood and the Soul Essays on Ancient Thought and Literature in Honour of Christopher Gill

by Seaford, Richard; Wilkins, John; Wright, Matthew

• ISBN13: 9780198777250
• ISBN10: 0198777256
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-05-02
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Selfhood and the Soul is a collection of new and original essays in honor of Christopher Gill, Emeritus Professor of Ancient Thought at the University of Exeter.

All of the essays in the volume contribute to a shared project--the exploration of ancient concepts of self and soul, understood in a broad sense--and, as in the work of the honor and himself, they are distinguished by a diversity of approach and subject matter, ranging widely across disciplinary boundaries to cover ancient philosophy, psychology, medical writing, and literary criticism. They can be read separately or together, taking the reader on a journey through topics and themes as varied as money, love, hope, pleasure, rage, free will, metempsychosis, Roman imperialism, cookery, and the Underworld, yet all committed to examining central issues about the experience of being a person and the question of how best to live.

The international line-up of contributors includes many established figures in the disciplines of classical literature, ancient philosophy, and ancient medicine, as well as several younger scholars. All have been inspired by Christopher Gill's contributions to scholarly research in these fields and their collective work aspires to honor through imitation his remarkable combination of range with focus.

Author Biography

Richard Seaford is Emeritus Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of Exeter. He is the author of approximately 70 papers on myriad topics, such as philosophy at its inception, the New Testament, Homer, and Greek lyric poetry, tragedy, satyric drama, and religion (in particular the cult of Dionysos), and his books include Reciprocity and Ritual, Money and the Early Greek Mind, Cosmology and the Polis, and commentaries on the two Dionysiac plays of Euripides, Bacchae and Cyclops. In 2009 he served as Honorary President of the Classical Association in the UK and he is currently full-time Principal Investigator on a historical comparison of early Greek with early Indian thought, funded by the AHRC.

John Wilkins is Emeritus Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Exeter. He is a specialist in the history of food and medicine in Greco-Roman culture, with a particular interest in developing links between ancient and modern medicine in the area of lifestyle and therapy, and has published widely on Greek food, medicine, and also literature: his books include Euripides: Heraclidae, The Boastful Chef, Food in the Ancient World, and Galien: Sur les facultes des aliments. He also serves on the editorial board of Food and History and on the scientific committee of the Institut Europeen d' Histoire et des Cultures de l'Alimentation.
Matthew Wright is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Exeter. He has broad-ranging interests in ancient and modern literature and specializes in Greek and Roman drama, literary criticism, fragmentary and lost works, and the idea of 'quotation culture' in the ancient world. An active member of the Classical Association and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, he has also published widely on Greek literature and drama in particular: his books include Euripides' Escape-Tragedies, Euripides: Orestes, The Comedian as Critic, and The Lost Plays of Greek Tragedy.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Richard Seaford, John Wilkins, and Matthew Wright
1. The Psukhê from Homer to Plato: A Historical Sketch, Richard Seaford
2. Imagining Good Future States: Hope and Truth in Plato's Philebus, Katja Maria Vogt
3. Freedom and Will: Graeco-Roman Origins, Richard Sorabji
4. Survival and the Self: Materialism and Metempsychosis Ancient Attitudes, Modern Perspectives, R. J. Hankinson
5. Epicurean versus Cyrenaic Happiness, David Sedley
6. Cicero on Imperialism and the Soul, Malcolm Schofield
7. Maximus of Tyre on God and Providence, Gretchen Reydams-Schils
8. The Indeterminate Self and its Cultivation in Plotinus, Nicholas Banner
9. The Essence of Rage: Galen on Emotional Disturbances and their Physical Correlates, P. N. Singer
10. Music and the Soul in Stoicism, Paul Scade
11. A Lover's Discourse: Erôs in Greek Tragedy, Matthew Wright
12. The Self and the Underworld, Emma Gee
13. Philosophy, Physicians, and Persianic Satire, Shadi Bartsch
Notes on Contributors
Bibliography of Christopher Gill's Publications
Index